Bible Questions and Answers

What happens to a Christian after cremation?

When God created Adam and placed him in the Garden of Eden, he gave him just one commandment to keep on pain of death.

Genesis 2:17  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

Adam disobeyed God and was sentenced to death.

Genesis 3:17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: "Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18  Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19  In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return."

Disobedience is called sin. Adam’s disobedfience brought sin and death upon all his progeny. The sentence for each and every sin is death.

Ezekiel 18:4 "Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father As well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned

In death we corrupt back into dust – the chemical elements from which we are constructed. The process begins at death and continues in the grave. Cremation merely accelerates the process.

The certain hope of those who believe and obey the Gospel is that of resurrection from the dead to eternal life at a future time of God’s choosing. God will reconstruct us from the dust.

It does not matter what happens to our body after death. If we were lost at sea, eaten by wild animals, burned to ash by a vocanic eruption (Pompeii), or vapourised by a nuclear explosion, our resurrection would not be a problem to God.

Burial is the usual way to dispose of the dead but there is no prohibition on cremation in the Bible.

May I suggest that you read: After Death – What? (Please click on the title)

I hope you find this helpful.

God bless,
Glenn